Which Beloved ’60s Sitcom Had More Episodes: The Munsters Or The Addams Family?

As two similar sitcoms about spooky families, “The Addams Family” and “The Munsters” have long been compared, but which of these two frightfully funny shows went on the longest? When it comes to the original 1960s shows, “The Munsters” has more episodes than “The Addams Family.” However, if you take the various revivals into account, things get a bit more interesting.

“The Munsters” and “The Addams Family” premiered on almost the same date and were on the air for basically the same amount of time. “The Addams Family,” an adaptation of Charles Addams’ series of single-panel comics about a Gothic family who are totally oblivious to how much they freak everyone out, first aired on ABC on September 18, 1964. “The Munsters,” which starred Fred Gwynne as a Frankenstein’s Monster-type patriarch of a family who also resemble classic monster archetypes, premiered on CBS less than a week later, on September 24. Both shows ended after two seasons in the spring of 1966, though “The Addams Family” returned for a Halloween reunion special in 1977.

Even with that reunion special, however, Gomez, Morticia, and the rest of the Addams clan still appeared fewer times than their CBS counterparts: “The Munsters” ran for 72 episodes across its two seasons, while “The Addams Family” only made it to 64 episodes. But, fittingly, both shows refused to stay dead and buried, and that’s where “The Addams Family” takes the lead. Counting all the subsequent shows, specials, and TV movies, “The Addams Family” has more episodes than “The Munsters,” winning by 185 to 151.

“The Munsters” came back in various forms over the decades. They hit the big screen not long after the show ended for 1966’s “Munster, Go Home,” which took them to England. In 1973, ABC aired a one-hour animated special titled “The Mini-Munsters,” with Al Lewis, who played Grandpa, the only cast member returning to voice his character. In 1981, fellow original series stars Fred Gwynne and Yvonne De Carlo joined Lewis for the TV movie “The Munsters’ Revenge.” A new show, “The Munsters Today,” revived the family with new actors in the ’80s, and with 73 episodes it ran for longer than the original “Munsters” series. Next came 1995’s “Here Come the Munsters,” another TV movie that premiered on Fox and had a totally different cast from either series: Edward Herrmann of “Gilmore Girls” fame played Herman Munster.

In 1996, the TV movie “The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas” offered yet another all-new cast. Things went quiet for a while after that, but then, in 2012, Bryan Fuller made a pilot for a dark new take on “The Munsters” called “Mockingbird Lane” (named after the street that the Munsters live on), with Jerry O’Connell as Herman Munster. The pilot, which aired as a standalone special to mixed reviews, cost $10 million to make and failed to impress NBC, who decided against picking it up for a full series. A decade later, in 2022, superfan Rob Zombie made a “Munsters” movie that failed to impress the critics. Of course, we’re excluding theatrical releases, but counting all the TV movies as individual episodes (and adding in “Marineland Carnival,” a TV special that aired between the first and second seasons of the original show), the total number of “The Munsters” episodes is 151.

The Addams clan have been even more prolific than their spooky rival family on the small screen, even if it took them a little longer to return following the final episode of the ’60s sitcom. They met Scooby-Doo in a crossover installment of “The New Scooby-Doo Movies” in 1972. A failed pilot for “The Addams Family Fun-House,” a variety show, aired later that year. A 1973 animated series (which featured the voice talents of a 10-year-old Jodie Foster) added 16 episodes to the count, and then came the 1977 reunion special, “Halloween With The Addams Family.” The 1992 animated series added another 21, and the live-action reboot series “The New Addams Family” added a whopping 65 episodes to the tally in the late ’90s.

The most recent “Addams Family” show is Netflix’s popular Jenna Ortega-led series “Wednesday,” which has two eight-episode seasons. That adds up to 185 total TV episodes, and with a third season of “Wednesday” on the way, the number will continue to grow. Of course, just like we did with “The Munsters,” we’ve excluded theatrical releases. There have been several “The Addams Family” films, and “The Addams Family” also had a direct-to-video release. Those movies – “The Addams Family,” “Addams Family Values,” direct-to-video threequel “Addams Family Reunion,” along with the 2019 and 2021 animated films – aren’t included in the final tally. Even without them, “The Addams Family” wins the contest comfortably.